Best Classes for Beginners in WoW Classic

Are you struggling to pick a class in WoW Classic? You're not alone! With so many options available, it can feel a bit overwhelming. Normally, the best advice is to go with whatever class sounds the most fun to you, but since WoW Classic is generally quite tougher than Retail, picking the right class as a beginner can really make a huge difference in your experience.

WoW Classic

What Makes a Class Beginner-Friendly?

Before we jump into the list, let's break down what exactly makes a class easier for new players:

• Self-sufficiency: With less forgiving mechanics, scarcer resources, and tougher mobs in Classic, it's very important to play a class that can heal itself, mitigate damage, and handle solo encounters.
  

• Leveling speed: Leveling in Classic is way longer and harder than in modern WoW, so you'd want your class to get that XP as fast and smoothly as possible.
  

• Gold efficiency: Gold is hard to come by in Classic, as gains are extremely low yet you'll have to pay for lots of things from training spells to buying gear and mounts. Some classes, though, are much cheaper to maintain and much more efficient in WoW Classic gold farming.
  

• Simplicity: A good beginner class should have an intuitive playstyle and an easy-to-learn rotation.

With that in mind, let's dive into the top picks.

Best WoW Classic Classes for New Players 

Hunter

Hunters are arguably the most beginner-friendly class in Classic WoW, thanks to their pet companion and ranged combat style. Your pet tanks enemies for you, deals solid damage, and takes most of the aggro, while you stand safely at a distance and DPS away.

Hunters are also one of the fastest solo levelers in Classic. They have great mobility and strong damage right from the start, while also scaling really well into the early endgame. The core rotation is simple and can be done on the move, with almost zero cast time, which makes reacting to mechanics a lot easier.

As far as gold farming goes, Hunters are pretty solid earners. They're cheap to play (no pricey gear or spells) and excellent at farming mobs, taking on elites and packs solo without breaking a sweat.

We're not ranking these picks in any particular order, but if we had to name a #1 class for beginners, Hunter would easily top the list.

Warlock

Warlocks are another great pick for new players. They're powerful spellcasters with big firepower and fairly straightforward mechanics, plus tons of survivability thanks to healthstones and fear spells.

Just like Hunters, Warlocks use pets to tank mobs. While you can technically play without a pet, we definitely recommend using one because it'll make your gameplay much easier. Warlocks are also excellent at chain-pulling and handling multiple enemies. Their DoTs and AoE spells allow them to melt packs with ease, and they have very little downtime while leveling. 

Gold-wise, Warlocks are also a strong pick. They get a free mount at level 40, so you can keep more gold in your pocket. This class can also solo farm pretty efficiently. Plus, Warlocks can summon other players to specific locations and sell those summons for some extra gold. 

Paladin

Paladins are tanky, powerful, and incredibly durable. While they may not be the fastest levelers, their strong self-healing and powerful defensives let them survive almost anything. 

The class boasts a very solid solo performance, handling elites and dungeon mobs without a healer if played carefully. In group content, Paladins also feel great, offering fantastic utility and support with their auras, blessings, and off-healing.

In terms of gold-making, they sit somewhere in the middle. A free level 40 mount saves a huge chunk of gold, and they also don't use much mana or consumables, so your upkeep will be quite cheap. Paladins can AoE farm reasonably well with Consecration and Bubble pulls, but they still don't have the same farming efficiency or speed as Hunters or Warlocks.

Pally's ranged options are quite limited, they have low mobility and slower kill speed compared to others, but if you want a forgiving class and don't mind a slow pace, then this will be a perfect fit. 

Druid

Druids are one of the most versatile classes in Classic WoW. Their various shapeshift forms and instant travel options help speed up questing and doing open-world content, and their vast toolkit allows them to adapt to nearly any in-game situation with ease.   

When it comes to gold farming, Druids truly shine in gathering professions. Thanks to Travel Form (available at level 30) and the ability to herb or mine while shapeshifted, they have a huge mobility advantage, making them arguably the best gatherers in the game. While not as consistent in AoE farming as our other picks, their innate mobility and gathering perks still make them excellent long-term earners.

As for downsides, Mana can be an issue early on, and the playstyle is a bit more complex than other newbie-friendly classes. 

Shaman

Shamans are solid all-rounders, offering a mix of melee, ranged, and healing abilities, plus a bunch of Totems for extra buffs and utility.  

Their access to the Ghost Wolf speed boost at level 20 makes questing way more efficient. Even though the leveling pace is average overall, Shamans do hold their own, especially with a hybrid build. They also do surprisingly well tanking lower- to mid-level dungeons.

Gold-wise, Shamans are in a good spot as well. Totems give them an edge in solo farming and if you combine that with gathering professions like Herbalism or Mining, you'll get yourself a very decent gold-making setup. 

Honorable Mention: Mage

Mages are arguably the best at quite literally everything. They boast top-tier damage, fantastic AoE farming, a powerful dungeon toolkit, and even the ability to conjure their own food and water. Their massive AoE potential makes them real gold-making machines, especially at higher levels, plus many players also make a solid income by selling portals and dungeon boosts.

However, with all that power, Mages are basically glass cannons with almost zero survivability. They're very mana-dependent, squishy when undergeared, and can only fill the DPS role. We definitely wouldn't recommend this class for complete beginners as it requires a lot more effort and game knowledge to master, but once you learn the ropes, Mages will be absolutely unmatched.